DIJO: MY FOOD, MY JOURNEY by Lesego Semenya, published by Jacana, R345
Soweto-born and raised Semenya, aka LesDaChef, charts his journey from the corporate world to being a respected and much-loved chef in this keenly awaited debut cookbook.
Though trained in fine-dining cuisine, his aim here was to “remove all the snobbery and showcase the important parts of our food: the stories and memories behind each dish, and the rich and beautiful heritage that comes with it”.
You will find a lot of nostalgic and flavourful township food in the book but also dishes that celebrate other elements of our richly diverse SA cuisine.
I especially enjoyed the “cheffy” tips he shares – little things home cooks can do to up our game when it comes to selection and preparation of ingredients, wine pairings and the like.